Comparing EFL Language Teachers and Students’ Perceptions of Teacher’s Interpersonal Behavior: A Case Study in an Online Iranian Context (original) (raw)
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Saudi EFL Students' Perceptions toward the Online Interactions of Their Peers and Instructors
SSRN Electronic Journal, 2015
The role of the instructor during the online L2 learning of Saudi English foreign language (EFL) students has been seen as essential in their online educational environment. This paper examines the quality of Saudi EFL students' online interactions. It aims at exploring how Saudi students perceive and view the online interactions of their peers and instructors to help promote their L2 learning in online educational discussion forums. Over an entire academic semester in a Saudi prestigious university, 49 EFL students were requested to interact online with their peers and instructors by discussing some argumentative topics. The data which were examined in this paper included participants' questionnaires and interviews. Quantitative and qualitative analysis methods were employed. The findings of the present study show that Saudi EFL students perceived their instructor-student online interactions more positively than their student-student online interactions. They valued the online interactions of their EFL instructors as more important and useful for their L2 learning than the online interactions of their EFL peers. It was concluded that the online presence of instructors appeared to encourage their students to think critically, express their thoughts, and develop their grammatical and spelling accuracy. Further research should look at how students perform their second language (L2) and maintain their social presence during student-student and instructor-student online exchanges.
The Role of Interpersonal EFL Teacher Behaviour in Enhancing Saudi Students’ Learning
This study investigated relationships between students’ perceptions of their teachers’ interpersonal behaviour and their learning outcomes in English as a Foreign Language (EFL). This study looked at how teacher–student interpersonal behaviour leads to better academic performance. 200 female participants took part (16-18 years old) from two secondary/high schools in Saudi Arabia. An adapted version of the Questionnaire on Teacher Interaction (QTI) was utilised and covered two independent dimensions called Influence (teacher dominance vs. submission) and Proximity (teacher cooperation vs. opposition). Using descriptive statistics and Pearson’s Chi-Square statistics the results showed the majority of the participants perceived their EFL teachers as good leaders and most of the students believed that teachers listened to them. In addition, a positive opinion was found about their teachers suggesting good academic performance in these schools. The participants were motivated to learn English either to seek further education, enhance knowledge travel, or out of interest. Finally, the results showed that most of the students who worked cooperatively are aware of their competency levels in EFL classes. The Pearson Chi Square test showed that student level of competency and the teacher profile are dependent on each other. This implies that the teacher can impact student performance and learning. Also the Chi Square tests showed that the course structure does not affect the students’ competency in English. Overall the study highlights the importance of communication to create interpersonal relationships that facilitate collaboration in the classroom. Besides, this study uncovered some critical issues problems in EFL teaching in Saudi Arabia such as lack of training for teachers and lack of communication in the class.
An Exploration of Interpersonal Functions in Iranian Advanced EFL Classrooms
International Journal of English Language Teaching, 2013
The research explores an aspect of teacher-learner and learner-learner interaction in Iranian EFL classroom discourse. Based on the assumption that classroom interaction is inherently a dialogue among teacher and learners, this study looks in detail at key aspects of the ways in which Iranian EFL teachers and learners interact with each other, bring their interactants into the context, and involve them in the construction of the discourse and the arguments in order to contribute to the interactiveness and persuasiveness of the oral discussion in the classroom. To do so, Interpersonal Metadiscourse Resources-Stance and Engagement-are looked at in a corpus totally 14,249 words produced orally by Iranian EFL teachers and female learners at advanced proficiency level in 15 sessions. The oral discussions were transcribed and analyzed using frequency frameworks and formulas. The results reveal that the teachers and learners use stance and engagement markers one about every four words and that both use the devices for fairly similar purposes. The findings, however, show noticeable quantitative differences: the teacher use Interpersonal Metadiscourse Resources more frequently than the learners. The teachers, also, use engagement markers considerably more frequently than stance markers; whereas EFL learners use both use stance markers and engagement markers almost equally. The quantitative differences seem to be related to the teachers' expertise in English language as well as the teachers' awareness of metadiscourse. The pedagogical implications of the study for novice EFL teachers, learners and material developers are outlined.
Learning Environments Research, 2017
We investigated Iranian secondary-school English teachers’ interpersonal behaviour with a validated culturally-adaptive Iranian version of the Questionnaire on Teacher Interaction. Data were collected from 971 Iranian secondary-school students (398 students participated in the pilot study and 573 students in the main study) and 55 Iranian secondary-school English teachers (23 teachers participated in the pilot study and 32 in the main study). The construction of the instrument started with an open-ended questionnaire followed by semi-structured interviews to prepare items for the questionnaire. Next, expert judgement, pilot administration of the questionnaire and statistical analyses ensured its reliability and construct validity before final administration of the questionnaire to the main participants followed. The study supported the validity and reliability of the questionnaire and confirmed its usability in the Iranian secondary-school context. Furthermore, the results indicated that the students perceived their English teachers as being Tolerant and Authoritative, showing higher degrees of friendship, leadership and understanding behaviour and relatively low levels of uncertain and dissatisfied behaviour. The results showed a discrepancy between students’ perceptions of actual and ideal teacher interpersonal behaviour. Also students’ perceptions of their actual teachers’ interpersonal behaviour were significantly different from those of the teachers’ self-perceptions. One important implication of this study is that the QTI can be used in secondary-school contexts as a valuable feedback instrument to encourage teachers to reflect on their performance and improve their interpersonal behaviour as a part of their professional development. Keywords: Cross-cultural validity, Questionnaire on Teacher Interaction, Secondary school English teachers, Student and teacher perceptions of teaching, Teacher–student interpersonal behaviour, Iran
SSRN Electronic Journal, 2016
With the proliferation of online teaching and learning in Saudi tertiary education, the role of the instructor during students' second language (L2) interaction has been seen as crucial in the online environment. However, it is yet to conclude how to promote L2 interaction between EFL instructors and their students when they interact in instructor-student online exchanges. The aim of the current study is to examine and understand the interactions and perceptions of EFL instructors to help enhance their interactions with their L2 students in the Saudi online environment. Three EFL instructors interacted online with their Saudi EFL students for a whole semester to discuss argumentative topics in the discussion forum. Data were collected through the transcripts of online interactions and one-to-one structured interviews. A content analysis approach was employed and a template for analysing online interactions was developed during the study. Qualitative and quantitative methods were employed for data analysis. The findings show that the three instructors played different interactional roles when they interacted with their students in the online discussion forums. Instructors observed that their students paid attention to linguistic errors and improve their L2 output when they interacted in instructor-student online exchanges. Instructor online presence and language corrective feedback given by instructors appeared to influence Saudi students to pay attention to the linguistic accuracy of their interactions and improve their language in the online environment. Some implications for EFL instructors have been pointed out by the researcher to help foster online L2 interaction between EFL teachers and Saudi students. More research is needed to help understand how to promote L2 interaction between EFL teachers and L2 students in the online environment.
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This research investigated the effects of interaction in online language classroom. A mixed method research design using questionnaire and interview was employed to elicit quantitative data from teachers (N=30) and students (N=55). In addition, a semi-structured interview was conducted with faculty members (N=10) to collect the qualitative responses on the effects of interaction in online language classroom. The data was analyzed using SPSS software (23.0). The results of the questionnaire revealed that students" interaction in online language classroom had positive effects on learning. However, the qualitative data contradicted the questionnaire results. Based on the contrary findings, the researchers offered the possible reasons for the difference of opinions. Solutions, based on the participants" qualitative responses, are offered to address the interactions" issues as highlighted by the respondents during the semi-structured interview. As e-learning platforms are being used worldwide in academia, this study will have universal implications.
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2017
In computer-mediated communication (CMC) environments, there is an extensive body of research which has looked at the nature of language learning of English as a foreign language (EFL) students within and beyond the classroom setting. However, most of this research has focused on the pattern of student-student interactions and extensively on the modality of synchronous CMC. The nature of instructor-student CMC interactions on online discussion forums remains unexplored in both L2 and Saudi EFL learning contexts. This study investigates how Saudi EFL students perform their language and project their social presence when they interact with (as opposed to without) their instructor in online discussion forums. Throughout an entire academic semester in a prestigious university in Saudi Arabia, 49 Saudi EFL students interacted in student-student and instructor-student online exchanges to discuss argumentative topics in their educational discussion forums. The present study employed a mixe...
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Classroom is an environment where teachers and students as inhabitants of different worlds are supposed to experience some sort of daily give-and-take. Such inherent discrepancies between these two groups of interlocutors might be among the untouched areas of research. Therefore, this study aimed to explore the cords and discords between first-year student teachers' and their educators' perceptions of educator interpersonal behavior. The sample of the study included 4 EFL educators and 102 student teachers majoring in TEFL at two branches of Iranian Teacher Education University. Data were collected with the Australian version of the Questionnaire on Teacher Interaction (QTI) that was validated and modified into four formats for measuring the participants' perceptions of the actual educators and an ideal educator interpersonal behavior. The results indicated that although both groups perceived an ideal educator interpersonal behavior similarly, the educators generally overestimated their cooperative behaviors and underestimate their oppositional ones in comparison to what their student teachers perceived. The results also indicated that male and female student teachers perceived some cooperative behaviors in the educators from the opposite gender more significantly. Based on the findings, it can be concluded that there are some perceptual mismatches between student teachers' and educators' perceptions of actual educator interpersonal behavior. Therefore, the findings imply that educators should take some measures to locate these perceptual mismatches and eliminate them gradually.
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The study aims to identify and describe forms and patterns of teachers’ basic behavior in teaching-learning processes based on Fundamental Interpersonal Relations Orientation (F.I.R.O.) theory. The study is descriptive qualitative in which its sample consists of four permanent teachers of English Education Department who have at least five years of experience in teaching-learning processes. FIRO-Behavior analysis was used as the techniques of data analysis in order to investigate teachers’ basic behavior in the classroom. The results indicate that teachers’ basic behavior tends to be more dominant which is categorized in inclusion as social, control as democratic, and openness as personal in establishing interpersonal relationships with students. Teachers tend to act as clarifiers and directors so that the given input and feedback in supporting students through language exposure and learning experiences were not optimal